


Something Given Willingly

by SeaOfBones



Series: Hubert/f!Byleth Oneshots [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Gift Giving, Mentioned Black Eagles Students (Fire Emblem), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), funny except when it's not, hubert von extra, hubert's OTT reaction when you give him a gift was entertaining to me, incredibly far pre-relationship, read this in any romantic/platonic combination that pleases you, schrodinger's tragicomedy, so i wrote something about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 16:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20642390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaOfBones/pseuds/SeaOfBones
Summary: Hubert reacts with suspicion when Byleth brings him a gift, and questions Edelgard about their teacher's intentions.





	Something Given Willingly

The door to the training ground swung open and their strange teacher stepped inside, sunset light streaming behind her. Hubert turned his back on her and continued his lance sequence, pretending not to have seen her. He kept an ear out for her footsteps above the rushing sound of his strikes.

She exchanged polite greetings with Catherine and Raphael, and spoke quietly to Caspar, circling the room like a vulture. And then he heard her walk towards him. She lingered as he finished his training sequence, and stepped forward as he leaned on his lance.

“Great work, Hubert,” she said mildly. “I’ve been looking for you.”

Hubert turned to scowl. She was traipsing around with a large canvas bag. Back from the market, he assumed. He wondered if he would find anything incriminating if he searched it. Wondered if he could turn her to dust, if it came to that. Professor Byleth had a face like glass in the dark – he felt he should be able to see through her, and sometimes thought he caught glimmers of something moving beneath her skin, but he had realised that the more he tried, the more he found himself watching a mere reflection, his own paranoia.

“Here are the reagents you requested for class,” she said, holding out a satchel. “I couldn’t find the book you asked for, but Professor Hanneman will see about acquiring it.”

“You have my thanks,” he grimaced. She hadn’t even asked his intentions for them. Was she so dimly trusting that she didn’t consider it, or did she already recognise them as components that could be used for a poison? Neither was ideal in someone Lady Edelgard seemed to have decided to put her confidence in.

“Oh, and here,” she said. She drew something else from her bag, and pressed it into his hand. Hubert froze.

“What is this?” he said coldly.

“It’s coffee,” she replied evenly.

Hubert glared. “Evidently.” She kept watching, with those inscrutable eyes. Hubert took a hasty step forward, and stooped low enough to hiss against her ear. “Clever, Professor. Very clever. Clearly, you’ve been studying my preferences. Well, I assure you, bribery will not make me put my guard down.”

“It’s a gift, Hubert,” she said flatly. “I thought you’d like it. You can give it back if you don’t.”

He reeled back, clutching the bag of coffee against his chest. “Whyever would you give me a _gift_, Professor?”

She sighed. Finally, he’d driven some sort of reaction from her. A victory, of sorts. “You can see it as a reward, if you prefer,” she said. “For your hard work in class. And helping Linhardt muck out the horses.”

He preferred not to think about the horses. “Fine,” he snarled. “I shall thank you for it, on those terms.”

She nodded, and almost turned to leave. “I asked Edelgard, by the way.”

“_Lady_ Edelgard,” Hubert corrected. “And _what_ did you ask her?”

“I asked her what you might like,” Byleth replied. “I was surprised that you had such mature tastes, but you are a little older than most of the other students, aren’t you?”

“Congratulations, you’ve read my record,” Hubert replied mockingly. How had she spoken to Lady Edelgard without him? The pair of them must have slipped his notice. He would ask Lady Edelgard what, if anything, she had managed to find out.

“Enjoy your coffee, Hubert,” she said, shrugging the bag further up her shoulder. Hubert couldn’t tell if she was annoyed, angry, anything as she left, and it irritated him. He turned back across the training ground, and lashed his lance through the sluggish evening air.

\---

Lady Edelgard answered the door in her pyjamas, her hair parted into braids for bed. Hubert bowed formally, holding the troubling gift in the hand he drew to his chest.

“May I come in, Lady Edelgard?” he asked.

Lady Edelgard stood aside. “Hubert, what’s troubling you at this time of night?” she asked.

“Our professor’s _behaviour_ is what’s troubling me,” he snarled, stalking into the room and turning to face her. “She gave me _this_ earlier in the evening.”

Lady Edelgard blinked. “Coffee?”

“A _gift_,” Hubert scoffed.

“I’m not seeing what the problem is,” she sighed.

“You don’t find it suspicious?” he said, beginning to pace around the room. “She contrives a reason to get you alone in order to ask you what manner of bribe would best suit me. Every part of it is concerning.”

Lady Edelgard sat heavily on the bed, watching him with tired eyes. “I understand your concern, Hubert. But in this instance, I suspect it’s unfounded. She gives many of her students gifts.”

Hubert scowled. “So she deceives everyone. That is even more concerning, Lady Edelgard.”

“Hubert,” she said sternly. “You trust me, don’t you?”

“With my life,” he replied.

“Then trust me on this,” she said slowly. “Whatever we may have to fear from the wielder of the Sword of the Creator, she is an ignorant. If we are considering seeking her aid, you would do well not to antagonise her over something so harmless. She gives Dorothea flowers, she brings Ferdinand tea. Earlier this afternoon, I heard Bernadetta screaming at her to leave a pastry on the ground in front of her room and walk away.”

Hubert nodded slowly, folding his arms. “So, it is truly some part of her class, rather than a personal entreatment. Very well.”

“Really, I’m surprised it bothered you so much,” Lady Edelgard added. “That she gives these rewards to others in our class can’t have escaped you. She seems rather fond of her students.”

“It’s no secret to her that I don’t trust her,” Hubert said. “I have told her as much.”

Lady Edelgard stared. “Hubert. Why did you do that?”

“If any should seek to harm you, Lady Edelgard,” Hubert growled. “I would have them know the consequences.”

Lady Edelgard’s mouth pressed into a thin line.

“As such, I assumed that any giving of gifts to one such as myself, who lives only as your servant, would have had to have some ulterior motive,” he continued. “To get close to you, perhaps.” He shook his head. “But I am left with the conclusion that this may have… truly have been intended purely for myself. As such, it is beneath your notice, Lady Edelgard. I trust your judgement, and am sorry to have bothered you with such a trifle.”

He turned to leave, when Lady Edelgard’s voice stopped him. “Hubert,” she said softly.

“Lady Edelgard,” he replied.

“We shall have little time for enjoyment, when I become emperor. Indeed, you have had very little time for enjoyment as it is. Someone has… given you a reward for your hard work. Something you have deserved more often than I have been able to give to you. So please, take this as it is. You may put some trust in our teacher, until I say otherwise.”

Hubert nodded, and turned the doorknob. “As you wish, Lady Edelgard.”

He turned to his room, the next one over, the dormitory at night filled only with black silence and the occasional muffled nightbird. Lady Edelgard must have been right, at least in this regard, about Byleth’s intentions. Hubert couldn’t imagine being given a gift; gifts were the domain of nobles who exchanged tokens with their frivolous favourites. A reward, though. Much as he did not consider his work as requiring them, a reward was something he understood.

Hubert put the coffee on his dresser, turned towards the window, and warily watched his reflection in the night-dark glass.


End file.
